Why Are Sharks’ Preseason Broadcasts Geo-Locked?

Bad news if you’re outside the San Jose Sharks’ broadcast area and you want to stream a home preseason game.

San Jose Hockey Now has confirmed that Sharks’ home preseason games will all be geo-locked, meaning that only those in the San Jose Sharks’ broadcast area will be able to stream the game on sjsharks.com.

For a lot of Sharks fans, unfortunately, that was the reason why they missed Macklin Celebrini’s preseason debut on Sunday. This geo-gating will also apply to Sharks’ home preseason tilts, which will be streamed on sjsharks.com, on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 and Oct. 5.

So why are these games geo-blocked?

SJHN checked around, and in layman’s terms, it’s because of NHL broadcast protocol, basically an old rule protecting a team’s local broadcast partners.

It’s important to note that this is a league-wide rule, not something that the San Jose Sharks or their local broadcast partner NBC Sports California can unilaterally change. Another key distinction is that this broadcast protocol applies to NHL games, preseason and regular season and postseason, and not events like development camp scrimmages or rookie tournament games.

Essentially, a locally-broadcast NHL game must stay local — it’s got to be picked up nationally for a game to be broadcast beyond the San Jose Sharks’ area.

So regular season Sharks’ games on local NBC Sports California are picked up by the NHL on ESPN+ package. The Sharks’ last preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights, which will be broadcast by Scripps Sports, will be picked up by the NHL on ESPN+ package. Of course, regular season Sharks’ games that national providers like ESPN want to make a national exclusive, like San Jose’s regular season opener on Oct. 10, that’s available everywhere.

But unfortunately for Sharks fans outside of the broadcast area this preseason, those are all professional TV broadcasts, and not necessarily a lower-quality stream on a team website like yesterday’s. The NHL on ESPN+ isn’t likely to pick that up.

Now why can’t the NHL waive broadcast protocol for the preseason? What do, for example, the New York Rangers or MSG Network care if a New York-based Sharks fan streams a Sharks preseason game in their market?

That’s an NHL question.

So what do you do if you’re a fan outside of the San Jose Sharks’ broadcast area for Tuesday’s home game against the Anaheim Ducks, potentially Will Smith’s preseason debut?

I would recommend getting a VPN, which should mask your real IP address. Essentially, you can live in New York and tell sjsharks.com that you’re in San Jose.

VPNs aren’t illegal in the US, and personally, I’ve been using ExpressVPN for about a decade, in many cities and countries from Canada to Europe to Asia. While there’s no guarantee that a VPN will work, it’s a case-by-case basis, historically, it’s been a reliable technology.

There are also illegal streaming sites, which I wouldn’t recommend for a variety of reasons.

You can always listen to Hall of Fame broadcaster Dan Rusanowsky call the game on the Sharks Audio Network too.

Good luck!